BACK TO SCHOOL, AND TO THE KITCHEN

The return to school for me is also a return to the kitchen. Summer starts great, but I tend to lose steam after things heat up, preferring whatever for a meal. How tepid!

Fall puts us back on a regular schedule, and that includes more regular visits to the grocery store, and predictable times to return home at the end of the day. This coincides with a growing season drawing to a close, roots appearing in the farmers markets, as well as the ever-present corn on the cob.

I still subscribe to Eating Well and Bon Appetit. They are staples in our home. But my new source for recipes is the Zite app. Zite is an aggregator. You pick the categories, and it combs through the news for you, selecting the hottest posts and articles.

Here are some of the recipes I have tried, thanks to Zite:

Hummus, which I could eat for lunch or dinner, or appetizers with wine, quite possibly each and every day.

Cream Cauliflower Sauce – this base can be added to just about any dish, giving you cauliflower calories instead of heavy cream. How cool is that? I did purchase the online cookbook, and have still to try the recipes. Instead we are using the base sauce in just about everything we cook these days!

Armadillo eggs – these beauties completely appeal to my son! Jalapeños, cheese and sausage… if we could figure out how to put pickles in there, he would be the happiest kid in the world!

Bacon – yes, we all do it either splattering out of a frying pan or in the microwave, but this recipe claims to eliminate splatter and keep bacon juicy. I still have failed at this, but I will continue to try it. The promise is just too good to walk away from!

Recipes still on my docket:

Peach ketchup! According to this cook, you will never go back to store-bought condiments once you make your own!

About Claire Ziamandanis

Claire Ziamandanis is Professor of Spanish at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Over her 20 years at the college, she has been a champion for study abroad, establishing the first affiliation for Spanish students, and then working with the Study Abroad office to open the doors to students from other majors. Claire loves travel, food, wine and Spanish but not necessarily in that order!